1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a power-save control method, and a power-save control program, and more particularly to a control of stopping power-supply to a processor.
2. Description of the Background Art
There is a continuing market demand for saving power consumption of image processing apparatuses including a computing unit such as a central processing unit (CPU), in which power-save control function is activated to stop power-supply to each unit in the apparatuses depending on operation status of the apparatuses.
For example, as for personal computer (PC) architecture applied to information processing apparatuses employing CPU of x86 series, such power-save control can be conducted by a suspend-to-RAM (STR) mode and a suspend mode.
When the STR mode is used for the power-save mode, the power supply to a main storage such as a random access memory (RAM) is continued to retain stored data (i.e., refresh operation) while the power supply to the CPU is being stopped, and thereby the operation status of the information processing apparatus can be stored. By employing such configuration, when returning from the power-save mode to a normal operation mode, the information processing apparatus can be quickly returned to the normal operation mode, which was a mode before shifiting to the power-save mode as disclosed in WO2001/033322 A2 (corresponding to published Japanese translation of PCT international publication for patent application “P2003-519830-A”).
Further, the suspend mode can be employed to conduct the power-save control, in which when resetting the apparatus, it is checked whether a jump code exists. If the jump code is detected, a loader process is conducted without initializing hardware as disclosed in JP-2003-248580-A.
However, the published patent application “P2003-519830-A” discloses a technology using the STR mode adapted to PC architecture, such technology cannot be used for other information processing apparatuses employing different architectures. JP-2003-248580-A discloses a technology adapted to the suspend mode, but the power supply to the CPU is being continued when resetting software.